The Riskalyze Report: DFA Gains Adherents

My friends at Riskalyze share the stocks and funds that advisors all over the country have used in their clients’ accounts each week. This data has been aggregated from across the client accounts of the thousands of advisors who use the software. Most of it comes directly through the third-party custodians where advisors’ assets are held. I hope we can uncover interesting trends for you each week…

Week of December 7th – December 13th 2014:

Winners = top investments purchased by advisors for client portfolios that week
Losers = investments that advisors sold out of in client portfolios that week

Winners (advisor flows TO these investments increased):

• DFA Funds (multiple)
• First Eagle Global (SGENX)
• Berwyn Income (BERIX)

Losers (advisor flows FROM these investments increased):

• Small Caps (IWF, VB, IWP, IWM)
• Mainstay Marketfield (MFLDX)
• Mid Caps (IWP, IJH)

Josh here – Riskalyze CIO Mike McDaniel tells me that “Advisor use of DFA funds has surged over the past few weeks.” It’s also interesting to see that Mainstay was once again for sale this week, a carry-over from the start of December. There seems to be a growing consensus that things like factor investing are worth the costs and risks while tactical model-driven SMAs and funds are simply not. We’re seeing this play out in advisor portfolios right now and it might be a trend with real legs into 2014.

Is this a sign of unshakeable faith in the bull market or is it more a vote of confidence (or non-confidence) for a particular brand / strategy?

A word about Riskalyze: